"ANENGLISHMAN'S HOME"

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 452, 10 March 1909, Page 5

"ANENGLISHMAN'S HOME"

THE DRAMA DESCRIBED. The London newspapers contain extended notices of the play "An Englishman's Home," by Major Guy du Manner, D.5.0., which created a great sensation when produced at Wyndham's Theatre recently. The object of the play is to direct attention to the nnpreparedness of Great Britain in the event of war. All the newspapers published special articles and interviews daily with statesmen, wlio utilised the occasion for the purpose of rousing the country to a realisation of the necessity for home defence. A CRUDE PLAY. The London "Times" of January 27 says: —"The production of such .1 play as 'An Englishman's Home' furnishes startling testimony to the hold which tho great national defenco question has taken of the thoughts and imagination of the English public. The thing itself is crude enough, and, indeed, somewhat amateurishly done., "What is significant is that tho thing should have been done at all, for here is a play • all about our national shortcomings, qur flack of military defence, and, still more, our habit of pooh-poohing any endeavour ! towards reform, the ignoranco of our volunteer troops, and the incompetence of their officers, all the helplessness that comes from lack of training and direction. These things are held up to the scorn of the pit. NO STORY ATTEMPTED. ■ "The most remarkable feature of all this is that tho play is absolutely made up of public questions. Of any attempt at a story in the ordinary sense, at any plot, at any love interest, there is virtually none. There is Brown, a typical English ratepayer, whose house is his castle, and who is boiling over with indignation because both contending armies have had tho effrontery to turn this 'castlo' of his into a 'strategic position,' and that, too, without asking his leave. Amid the. pillage and carnage 110 goes to look for a policeman. "There is young Smith, a typical suburban 'bounder,' who spends his life at football matches, knows the names of all the players by heart, and, looks upon volunteering as 'silly rot'; and there is Robinson, 'a quiet, earnest volunteer, who finds it impossible to convince, others that able-bodied Englishmen have something else to do just now than , play at games. Even the portly Brown plays Diabolo and is rallied by ail the girls of the' household bccause his uniform is not becoming. ■ THE HOUSE INVADED. • "And so they aro all wrangling and chaffing, and reading tho sporting papers, and generally in their own phrase, 'rotting,' when there enters two stern gentlemen in foreign uniforms. Tho Englishman's (Essex) house, is occupied by an advanco party of invaders, the army of the 'Empress of the North.,' From this moment tho grotesque, rather-squalid, farce of the thing is turned to grim, horror. ■ "Of course, the main lines of this sort of thing .have been familiar enough ever since 'The Battle of Dorking.' Smug, snobbish domesticity is suddenly to be brought face to face with the horrors of war. There is the whistling of bullets and the scream of shells. Tho slangy Mr. Smith, in tha very act of perpetrating more Cockney jokes, falls dead with a bullet through the heart. ; "But' that is only an incident in tho author's real theme of contrasting the inefficiency of the untrained English volunteer with tho iron discipline and masterly organisation of the invaders. Our men don't know how to take the range, or how to shoot without exposing themselves; they don't know on what ilank the enemy is; they don't know anything. THE IMPOTENT BROWN. "The, order goes for them to retiro, but Brown, indignant with Englishmen for ever retiring before a foreign foe, declares that he at any rate will stay. The shells aro knocking his ' castle' to pieces, and a kind of frenzy possesses him. Ho snatches up his rifle, and does not know how to use it. Then ho finds out the way, and shoots one of tho enemy. ' Quickly overpowered, ho is summarily ordered to be shot as a civilian found in arms. (This particular incident is quito well done by-the-way; so well done as to suggest tho classic little story of Maupassant on tho same theme.) ' "As his daughter is wailing over his corpse, there is a distinct sound of bagpipes. It appears that the British Army has been rapidly brought up in trains and motor buses, and tho invaders are'caught in a trap, with the final solace to our national amour propre." MADE ENGLISHMEN THINK. The London "Daily Mail " critic says:— "Many came to scoff, and went away delighted, and it did what , few English plays do—it mad© us. think. As we went out wo thought, in spite of ourselves, of the man who for so many years has pleaded for national service—of Lord Roberts. We went out thinking, doubting, questioning." 1 TART OF THE CENSOR. '.It appears that the censor at first refused permission for the play to be produced, but relented, when it was pointed out that the invaders were not meant to be Germans, but simply foreigners. Viscount Esher witnessed the first performance, and afterwards said to a press representative: —"Tho play was splendid. I hops provincial companies will bo formed to take it through all the great towns. It demonstrates., in the first place, what an invasion of Eng-land-would really mean. In it you see peoplo who do not understand the subject at all brought to understand the real truth. The sccond lesson is to throw into shape and outline for tho young peoplo of the country the results of men otherwise perfectly qualified, to bear arms devoting themselves exclusively to their own amusements, to athletics, and to nothing which is of national import. Tho third lesson is to be read in the difference between the people who have treated such serious matters as an invasion lightly, and those who, liko the supposed invaders, havo been thoroughly disciplined to the importance of war. This furnishes some of the most remarkable incidents in a brilliant play." An officer who was present on. the first night described the whole thing as an appalling object-lesson.